Sunday, June 26, 2011

June 25 Montreal to Heartroot Farm

June 25, 2011
Ah….hot coffee and Mr.Maple for breakfast, Bonnie was right I will probably polish off the first box by the time I make Montreal. These cookies are amazing sorta like what Oreos use to taste like, but maple instead of chocolate. Bonnie is a true maple addict and now I know why. I could use some real food (sorry Mr.Maple) but think I will wait till I get off the train in Montreal. A French Breakfast sounds good even though I am not sure what that will be, I think Derrick said something like a, Twinky and a Mountain Dew? Oh and I have discovered Tim Horton’s, the Starbuck equivalent on every street corner, to heart clogging fats and bad coffee, it is more like Dunkin Donuts at home.
I am a little nervous about finding my bus, making calls and getting rides but I also know it will all work out and I will be at Heartroot Farm by this afternoon.
This will be the first morning in a long while that I have not played my flute to wake the Elements within me and run to get my body up and moving. Simple pleasures but I love them. I didn’t run the morning I went to Jacksonville. These things are good habits, to replace some bad ones. I love to run, and actually walking hurts my shins. I first started running as a very over weight teenager and found a freedom in it that was so natural to me. I go through times in my life where I just don’t run for what ever reason, but I am glad I have found it in my life again.
I started playing the flute when we went to Starfest 2009, I bought this Georgia
river reed flute with five holes, sounds like a woman’s voice so it is easy to find the notes
to a song you would sing, or it is for me. I love it. When I was young I played recorder
but never really liked the finger placements. Three of the Elemental chants I play are
actually chants I have found on the flute, the other two found me.
Quebec, from the train is green, newly planted fields, huge farms, wet from recent rain
and some Hairy cows. Rain pellets the train window, the morning light is pale yellow
and green as The farms roll by. Strange that I feel a connection to what I see and feel here
maybe from my Grandfather’s side maybe feeling it, I don’t know. Gas is spelled Gaz.

So the mad dash from the rail station to the bus station in Montreal was a bit unnerving but I did it with grace. I took a cab and saw just a dab of down town Montreal in a down pour. I really pissed the breakfast cook off in the bus station when he asked me if I wanted 2 breakfasts (I had ordered the #2 breakfast) and I thought he was asking me if I wanted two eggs. There was this beautiful woman that came up behind me in line and took the breakfast that I had NOT ordered because I think she saw that I was almost in tears because I did not understand and he was just bitchin at me. Oh, now I know why Cindy taught me, Tabernak… it means F U but I would have been afraid he would have thrown a knife at me. I was really hungry and tired. I even decided not to ask for a to go box and made my way back to my bags with open plate of food spilling half of it. A very nice woman offered to watch my bags for me, and something said yes, I can trust her. When I got back there were two women getting in bus line up that had the look with big back packs, tattoos and dyed hair. I asked and yes they too were going to EAT and another one joined in. By the time we got off the bus there were 5 of us with a shit load of luggage. The beautiful woman that came to get us just made the best of it and we all piled into this (small) SUV that had six seats and piled our luggage in on top of us. I sat in the front with all my luggage on my lap except my hand bag that was in the back. By the time we drove another 1 ½ hours to the farm I had been on the road for 27 hours straight and in some of the most uncomfortable positions, I ached all over. Then I have to say that when I got here it was not what I expected. Needless to say I am a little….humbled by the accommodations and the lack of organization and that is all I am going to say. I did rally that Louise (from Montreal) and I get into the cabin and we have been joined by other older women Marilyn from New York. The young carefree Hippy unorganized energy here is just a little too free spirit for my mind right this moment but I have met some incredible people and there are a lot of things telling me I need to be here doing this work. I am just tired and grumpy right now, I have been on a whirlwind trip and I need to relax, and I really think this is going to be ok.
The farm is.. well I will just say in a state of needed repair. But there are beautiful wild flowers and it is getting really cold and it has been raining for two weeks. We had a very light dinner of rice pasta and vegetables and some sort of salad.
I need to call home and had to ask for the phone and that was not comfortable being taken to the house which is private and we are in a barn that is communal living space.
We had our introduction and first meeting after dinner. There are 18 students but a lot of other people here just coming and going. There are two kids of a student that are distracting. We chose Affinity Groups and the young mother ended up in our group and then we had a meeting about work traded jobs, I got toilette duty…. I took it because the other work traders are all young and excited I just didn’t want to put them in the position to feel they got the shit. There are a lot of young people here and that is why I choose the little cabin away from the youthful energy of the dorm and so I have a place to be quiet.
It was a very LONG day.

No comments:

Post a Comment